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Monday, December 10, 2012

Repost: Compliance (December 13th and 14th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[COMPLIANCE screens Thursday December 13th at 8:30 pm and Friday December 14th at 7:15 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque. ]

Review by Bob
Ignizio

For most viewers, there will come a
point in COMPLIANCE at which
they feel what they are seeing couldn't possibly happen in real life.
Surely no one in their right mind would go along with what the prank
caller in the film, impersonating a police officer, tells a
restaurant manager and others to do to an employee the caller has
said is guilty of theft. Surely, as with most films that claim to be
“based on a true story”, the filmmakers must be exaggerating for
dramatic effect. They aren't. The names and locations have been
changed, but the events depicted in COMPLIANCE
are identical to what happened at a Kentucky McDonald's in 2004. And
lest you think that was an isolated incident, 70 similar cases took
place over the prior decade.

The film takes place on a busy Friday night at the fictitious
Chickwich restaurant. It's already been a bad day for manager Sandra
(Ann Dowd) – someone left the freezer door open the previous night,
ruining some of the store's supplies, and one of her employees has
called off sick. Still, Sandra and her crew keep things going as best
they can. Then the phone rings. A man claiming to be a police officer
tells Sandra that counter girl Becky (Dreama Walker) stole money from
a customer's purse. He needs Sandra to take the girl back to her
office and search her. Despite protestations of innocence, Becky
agrees, figuring it will all be over soon. It won't, and from here on
things just keep getting progressively more disturbing and
unbelievable.

It might seem as if writer/director Craig Zobel's script would work
just as well as a stage play, but that's not the case. The way the
film is shot adds a great deal to its overall tone. Zobel uses a lot
of close-ups, generating a feeling of claustrophobia and driving home
the way his characters are unable to see beyond themselves and their
immediate situation. Zobel also does a great job getting the mundane
details right; anyone who has ever done time in fast food Hell to
make ends meet should find the personalities, conversations, and
general operations of the Chickwich restaurant quite familiar.

Given the resistance many have to accepting Zobel's premise, having a
strong, believable cast is crucial. Although in her mid twenties,
Walker makes for a very convincing teen. She starts out with a sort
of snarky, mildly annoyed bravado which is then chipped away, bit by
bit, over the course of the film. As for Dowd, her performance
absolutely sells the idea that her character would go along with what
she's told without being stupid or a “bad” person.

We're
taught from an early age to respect and obey authority figures like
police officers to the point that it's an almost unconscious response
for some. We all like to think that we'd act differently in a
situation like the one in this movie, but how do we really know? It's
that fear and self doubt that COMPLIANCE
plays on very effectively. So effectively that some audience members
have walked out of screenings. Even though Zobel shows a great deal
of restraint, never allowing his film to slip into exploitation, his
basic premise is just too unsettling for some. As an examination of
the dark side of the ways humans react to perceived authority, the
film is just about perfect, but if you're looking to be entertained
in the traditional sense, this probably isn't for you. 3 1/2 out of 4
stars.